Tips for growing a beautiful green lawn

Whether you're sowing seeds or laying sod, it's important to know how to get the best results for your new lawn so you don't miss patches or need to resow. Here are some tips for a perfect lawn.

New lawns can be started from seed or sod. Both methods have their own advantages.

1. Seed, while slower, is less costly, and it allows you to vary the seed mixture to take into account the varying shade areas in the garden.
2. Sod gives an instant lawn and you are far less restricted on timing.

To make sure you have good drainage, grade soil to slope slightly away from the house in all directions.

• If you add topsoil, spread it over the surface evenly.
• You can eliminate bumps or high spots where a mower might cut the grass too short, and fill in any low spots where rainwater tends to collect or where a mower might miss.
• You can buy topsoil or mix in organic material such as compost.
• The many fine rootlets that grass develops each year in the top few centimetres/inches of lawn will help to improve the structure of the soil.

Before laying sod, prepare the ground as you would for seeding.

1. The spreader should distribute fertilizer in a strip the same width as the hopper.
2. Loosening compacted soil is essential.
3. Remove all foreign materials. Do not bury them, since that may alter the chemical balance of the soil.
4. Cultivate to loosen the soil uniformly a few centimetres/inches deep.
5. Mix in compost, and if desired, a balanced organic fertilizer blend.

• Grass seeds themselves contain only enough nourishment to form the first sprout and roots, so added nutrients are necessary for further growth.

For best results, apply a mix of two parts blood meal and three parts bone meal to the area before digging, as these need to be broken down by bacteria in the soil.

• If the soil has not been excessively fluffed, rolling may not be needed. In fact, sometimes rolling can undo the benefits of cultivation by mashing down the soil particles, making the surface less permeable.
• Rolling will not damage sandy soils, and in some cases it is the only way to reestablish capillary action to transport water from deeper levels.
• It may also be necessary on heavy soils that have become unduly fluffy during preparation.

Sod is laid down in strips like pieces of carpet, and may arrive in strips or rolls, depending on the time between cutting and delivery. If possible, lay the first strip of sod against a straight edge.

• Butt each sod flush against the previous one, and lay the rows in a staggered pattern.
• Keep a bucket of fine soil handy, and use this to fill any gaps between strips of sod, where they may have been damaged.

Usually approximately one and a half kilograms (three pounds) of seeds are used per 100 square metres or 328 square feet (less with bent grass, more with perennial ryegrass).

Use a lawn spreader to avoid possible misses. Spread half the seeds in one direction, then spread the remainder at right angles to the first.

• Spreaders that drop the seeds from a hopper have the advantage of cutting off the coverage exactly at borders.
• The centrifugal cyclone type, which throws seeds from a whirling disk, feathers the edges of the successive passes of seeds better, and it also covers the ground more quickly.

Rake the seeds lightly with the back of a bamboo rake, barely covering them with soil.

• After seeds are sown, keep the soil bed thoroughly moist for about two weeks, or until the grass is well-established.
• Avoid light sprinklings. The water should penetrate the soil to a depth of several centimetres/inches.